the most wonderful time of the year

The holiday season has kept us very busy, so busy that I haven't posted in quite some time.

At the beginning of December, we had a whirlwind trip to Michigan for a quick visit with Mandy and Frank and then had an early Christmas celebration with my mom and Seth's family. Mandy and Frank's went as B predicted: 1. boys will play and go to bed 2. beer will be offered, probably an IPA 3. you and Mandy will split a bottle of wine 4. play some cards 5. we will go to bed early. His prediction was eerily close, the IPA was Lagunitas but we did not play cards. Always good to see them, albeit this visit seemed especially brief.

The next day we headed over to see Seth and his lovely collection of dental tools. After an hour of teeth torture we headed up to East Lansing so that I could show Bryan my alma mater, the tour was quick one with only a few fleeting moments of nostalgia. The highlight was definitely having lunch at my most favorite place, Thai Kitchen with my good friend Patti. The food was as delicious as I remember it and the company was too.

Later on that day we had an early Christmas at my mom's new apartment. It consisted of cookie baking, my mom's lasagna (my favorite) and some present opening. Justin and family even joined in via skype, which was nice, but not quite the same. Hopefully next year we can all be together again.

Upon return to Chicago, we only seemed to get busier. There was Christmas tree purchasing and decorating, out of town guests, company parties, job interview, a first book club meeting, a dinner party or two and some holiday parties, and then finally Christmas.

On the eve of, we baked some cookies and enjoyed another virtual round of present opening with Justin's family. Ethan took a nap and then we headed out to B's parents, where we were able to enjoy some room-temperature ham together. It was delicious. We then put some cookies and carrots out for Santa and his reindeers and Ethan went to sleep with what I can only hope were visions of sugarplums dancing in his head. Not soon after, I innocently dozed off during A Muppet's Christmas Carol, which I come to find out later is a sacred Dunk tradition. Crap.

The next morning, I kept waking up, thinking that Ethan would be up early. As luck would have it he slept in. Late. Everyone was up waiting for him to get up before Christmas could officially begin. And he finally did. There were stockings. Then there was bacon. Coffee. Presents. More bacon. And then more presents. It was exhausting, but luckily we had Ethan who wanted to open everyone's presents, especially his own. It became appallingly apparent that he was scanning all of the gift tags for the letter E.

The rest of Christmas day consisted of watching some Rudolph, hanging out and napping. There was a family gathering later in the evening that consisted of yet more presents, more food and a few glasses of wine. The next day we returned to Chicago to have lunch with my dad and step mom. And then spent the rest of weekend relaxing, playing in the snow and hanging out together. It really was the most wonderful time of the year.

hail to thee, it's the grand marquis

I got a text message from my brother on Monday, reporting that our neighbor growing up had lost his fight with cancer and had passed away. He was our age and we grew up just down the street from one another and had a mutual circle of friends, I aw him a few times in college and he and Seth went to dental school together as well. I had heard that he had gotten sick a few years ago, but never heard a lot of the details. From what I understand he had started to get better but then had become worse the past few months. It is tremendously sad, he was only 35. I think of his parents and how devastating this must be for them, my condolences go out to his family.

What I remember most about him, was that he owned an old wooden paneled old station wagon. Which was very handy when there was a lot of us that needed a ride somewhere. We loved his wagon so much that we started a fan club for his car, I even made membership cards. It is a distant memory but a happy one.

i wish we had cable

So tonight is the season finale of Top Chef and I am so freaking excited except for one small issue. We don't have cable, so we have to wait to watch it tomorrow. Which basically means that I have to avoid the internets all day tomorrow so that it won't be ruined. The downfall of reality tv is that it will surely be tweeted, facebooked or in the news headlines. Tricky.

This happened just the other week with Project Runway. And it really is a stick in the spokes if you know who wins. Then all the trickery of the interviews and camera shots is lame. And then more often then not, the person you want to win doesn't and knowing it just makes everything worse. Anticipation is replaced with dread and no matter how hard you want the "winner" to lose and your guy win, it never happens.

Season 6 of Top Chef has hands down been my favorite. I don't know whether it has had better personalities or better talent but this season has been vast improvement over the Stefan v. Hosea slap-fight from last season. I will admit that I really liked Jennifer and was disappointed when she had to pack her knives and go. But I think the three that made it most certainly deserve it. I was unsure about the whole brothers thing at the beginning, but I think those Bravo people might've be on to something.

I am rooting for Kevin but I think that Bryan will win.